EFF defends Yes Men from business rage over climate hoax

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is telling the US Chamber of Commerce to …

The nation's leading business trade association is not a happy camper about a parody site that has rewritten its controversial position on climate change legislation. Attorneys for the United States Chamber of Commerce have issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown demand notice against the latest prank by the Yes Men, that self-described "genderless, loose-knit association of some 300 impostors worldwide who agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce"—and then unleash the clowns of public relations war.

But lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation are telling the Chamber to cool off about the whole affair.

What's the furor about? The Yes Men staged a fake press conference this week at the National Press Club in Washington. A "Yes Man" calling himself "Hingo Sembra" actually took to the podium in front of reporters to announce the Chamber's shift on climate change, only to have the whole spectacle turn truly bizarre when a real Chamber official showed up.

According to CBS News, "The press conference began normally but dissolved into a surreal scene when a legitimate Chamber official burst into the event, having heard about it from a reporter, and exclaimed that 'Sembra' was a phony. The activist holding the press conference then called the Chamber official, Eric Wohlschlegel, a fake and demanded his business card."

The Yes Men also went all-out to create a new Chamber of Commerce website, complete with a faux statement by the group's CEO, Thomas J. Donahue, that does a full about-face on the Chamber's notorious opposition to proposed greenhouse gas reduction laws. In his new, improved, rather long-winded, and completely fabricated Yes Men ghostwritten speech, Donahue now warns that the business community needs to "remember Lehman Brothers, a committed, solid member of this Chamber, who in the interest of short-term gain scuttled a century. They ate lamb, but were left without wool when the cold, hard winter set in."

The phony address acknowledges that in the recent past the Chamber has "tried to keep climate science from interfering with business." But now the group sees the light. "Without a stable climate, there will be no business. We need business more than we need relentlessly higher returns." As a result, "the Chamber expects to welcome back companies that have recently defected over our climate stance," faux Donahue predicts.

Fundamental differences

That reference is no joke, actually. Pacific Gas and Electricity, among other utility companies, has dropped its membership in the Chamber of Commerce for real. Its Chairman and CEO Peter Darbee cited "fundamental differences" with the trade association over climate change, not to mention being grossed out by a Chamber Vice President's comments likening concerns that global warming will endanger public health to opposition to Darwinian evolution in the 1920s. William Kovacs recently said he wanted an "on-the-record" government proceeding on the question, something akin to "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century . . . evolution versus creationism."

Meanwhile, the bogus site even comes with a fraudulent celebratory press release about Donahue's fake turnaround speech. The Chamber has announced "an immediate moratorium on lobbying and publicity work opposing climate legislation," it happily proclaims.

Needless to say, the real Mr. Donahue and company are not amused. On Monday, the Chamber declared that "public relations hoaxes undermine the genuine effort to find solutions on the challenge of climate change," and promised to take action against the gag.

On Tuesday, Chamber attorneys lobbed their takedown letter over to the Yes Men's ISP, Hurricane Electric [see update below], noting that the joke site is chock full of logos, images, and designs associated with the real group. And don't forget, the letter to Hurricane puffed, that the real group is "well known within the United States," and a recent poll proclaimed it "among the top five best-known and respected organizations in Washington, DC."

So get that satirical website down by Thursday, Chamber lawyers warned, and cancel your accounts with those nasty Yes Men. "We are sure you can understand our clients' concerns," the letter concludes.

No we can't, responded EFF attorney Matthew Zimmerman on Thursday, citing fair use and parody rights. "Further, to the extent that it utilizes copyrightable materials of the Chamber, the Parodic Site uses no more than necessary for purposes of the parody," the letter notes. What the Yes Men have created "is plainly not a substitute for the original," EFF argues.

It is, however, a lot more fun, and very early this morning it was still up and running.

Correction and update

The May First/People Link group writes in to point out that it is the Yes Men's site provider, Hurricane Electric being May First's upstream provider. According to May First, HE demanded that the group pull the Yes Men site. When it refused, HE placed over 400 of the organization's sites off-line.

"We moved the site to another of our servers, driven by another of our upstream providers," Alfredo Lopez of May First tells us, "and demanded that HE return us to service and, after an hour and a half of down time, they did that. We do not remove sites from circulation because of political content."

What's sad about this whole event is that the media bit into this hook line and sinker with Reuters reporting it as fact, without ever bothering to do even the slightest bit of journalistic fact-checking.

From Fox News:"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday said that a press release declaring the group had dropped its opposition to climate change legislation was a hoax.

The fake press release, which declared the Chamber had done an "about-face on climate policy" following the defection of prominent members, was briefly picked up by Reuters and several other media organizations. "http://www.foxnews.com/politic...upport-climate-hoax/

I find it laughable that our media can be played for a fool like this. They simply bought the whole thing.

From Politco.com:"A CNBC anchor interrupted herself mid-sentence Monday morning to announce that the network had “breaking news,” then cut away to reporter Hampton Pearson, who read from the fake press release."http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28456.html

Originally posted by Kressilac:What's sad about this whole event is that the media bit into this hook line and sinker with Reuters reporting it as fact, without ever bothering to do even the slightest bit of journalistic fact-checking.

From Fox News:"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday said that a press release declaring the group had dropped its opposition to climate change legislation was a hoax.

The fake press release, which declared the Chamber had done an "about-face on climate policy" following the defection of prominent members, was briefly picked up by Reuters and several other media organizations. "http://www.foxnews.com/politic...upport-climate-hoax/

I find it laughable that our media can be played for a fool like this. They simply bought the whole thing.

From Politco.com:"A CNBC anchor interrupted herself mid-sentence Monday morning to announce that the network had “breaking news,” then cut away to reporter Hampton Pearson, who read from the fake press release."http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28456.html

Are business cards that hard/expensive to get made in the US? i mean wtf he kept saying he doesn't have a business card as if that could prove he was in fact an impostor... it would've been very funny had the YM actually had some made XD, or would that be illegal?

Perhaps I have to go to You Tube to find the CNBC anchor that actually broke away mid sentence. Would that then staisfy your requirements. Those two sites weren't the only ones reporting the media getting duped and made to look stupid.

Now are you satisfied or will you continue to discount what I said simply because of the web sites I linked? Even Fox News fell for it apparently. My point was that the media in general are idiots and will fall for anything. None of the outlets are immune it seems. Well, Ars didn't report it but I wouldn't have expected them to.

I agree with eXceLon here. To count as parody, the work has to be clearly differentiated from the real thing and I don't think the Yes Men's site is. The fact that some news organizations picked it up as real only bolsters that case.

The EFF lawyer may be saying the site is "clearly not a substitute for the original" but it looks to me like he is clearly lying.

Originally posted by ggeezz:I agree with eXceLon here. To count as parody, the work has to be clearly differentiated from the real thing and I don't think the Yes Men's site is. The fact that some news organizations picked it up as real only bolsters that case.

The EFF lawyer may be saying the site is "clearly not a substitute for the original" but it looks to me like he is clearly lying.

Agreed

Most of the non-spoof links go directly to the real site's analogous pages. This isn't parody, it's identity theft.

So where is the integrity, Ars? Even though you would probably side with the Yes Men against the chamber on the climate issue, and would side with the EFF on most issues, why not call them out on this?

Originally posted by ggeezz:I agree with eXceLon here. To count as parody, the work has to be clearly differentiated from the real thing and I don't think the Yes Men's site is. The fact that some news organizations picked it up as real only bolsters that case.

The EFF lawyer may be saying the site is "clearly not a substitute for the original" but it looks to me like he is clearly lying.

Forget about presentation and think about content. While the graphics and styling may be hard to distinguish from the real CoC website, the content falls within parody because it's something the Chamber of Commerce would never say. Just because it's not over-the-top Swiftian satire doesn't change that fact.

Originally posted by ggeezz:So where is the integrity, Ars? Even though you would probably side with the Yes Men against the chamber on the climate issue, and would side with the EFF on most issues, why not call them out on this?

It's rather fraudulent to call a press conference in somebody else's name, and insist that you're legitimate. The website also seems to be more fraudulent than satire, as it intersperces links to the real site. The people supporting this stunt, if they're going to be honest with themselves, wouldn't support this act if the Chamber of Commerce did this to Yes Men.

I am, however, not ready to call out the dogs on this one though. I seem to remember an Orson Welles broadcast that had a large number of people fooled. I say live and let live. Maybe the Yes Men will do a better job next time?

Originally posted by TK:I thought that US government and subsidary seals, logos, etc were in the public domain by default?

It is a private organization, not a government entity.

quote:

While the graphics and styling may be hard to distinguish from the real CoC website, the content falls within parody because it's something the Chamber of Commerce would never say. Just because it's not over-the-top Swiftian satire doesn't change that fact.

We'll see, but I think it will. How do you know the CoC would never say that? Anyone who had never heard the CoC's previous stance would have had no reason to think it was satire.

quote:

You know SNL has to have a field day with this tomorrow night. I wouldn't be surprised if a parody of this parody opens the show.

I think you're seriously overestimating the pop culture appeal of this event.

I'm gonna say ++ to marmot_1. I think the Yes Men have a good cause, but I can't really say I condone these particular stunts without them being more obviously... well.. funny.

It would have been better if e.g. they called themselves the "Chamber of Capitalism" and claimed to vehemently oppose climate legislation for fear of putting potential future ice vendors out of business. Then they could have built a whole site of articles in the style of The Onion.

Originally posted by Shades047:It's rather fraudulent to call a press conference in somebody else's name, and insist that you're legitimate. The website also seems to be more fraudulent than satire, as it intersperces links to the real site.

Seriously. These guys seem to have more in common with con-men than satirists.

I have to agree that this seems to go beyond mere parody - I clicked on the link before finishing the article and thought it WAS the CoC's site, and was trying to spot the parody bit.

However, could there be some kind of "political action" justification? This is a group making a political statement. They didn't cause actual harm to the CoC (other than calling attention to its stance on climate change, which I think couldn't be considered harmful per se). Or maybe plain old fair use is broad enough to cover it?

The truth is after watching the youtube video, I wasn't sure who the real chamber representative was. I think they both were fake.

The video shows the supposedly real one with a pencil sticking out of his ear. I don't think a real Chamber person would show up having a pencil sticking out of his ear in that situation. Maybe they were both faked to add to the surrealism.

Originally posted by TK:I thought that US government and subsidary seals, logos, etc were in the public domain by default?

It is a private organization, not a government entity.

That's an excellent point. There is tremendous irony in a non-governmental group of lobbyists who call themselves the 'US Chamber of Commerce' complaining about another group misrepresenting themselves as something they are not.

Originally posted by ljocampo:The truth is after watching the youtube video, I wasn't sure who the real chamber representative was. I think they both were fake.

The video shows the supposedly real one with a pencil sticking out of his ear. I don't think a real Chamber person would show up having a pencil sticking out of his ear in that situation. Maybe they were both faked to add to the surrealism.

Matthew Lasar / Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.